Conventionally, a suspension bump thrust comprises a rolling bearing forming an axial thrust provided with an upper ring and a lower ring between which at least one row of rolling elements, for example balls or rollers, is placed. The upper and lower rings are usually mounted in contact with upper and lower supporting or bearing parts, such as cups or covers. The upper and lower covers form a housing for the rings of the rolling bearing and make it possible to provide the interface between the said rings and the adjacent elements.
The suspension bump thrust device is placed in the upper portion of the suspension strut between the body of the vehicle and a suspension spring. The spring is installed around a shock absorber piston rod the end of which is connected to the body of the vehicle by means of an elastic seat filtering the vibrations. The elastic seat comprises a flexible synthetic block and one or more cups for reinforcing or stiffening the said block. The upper bearing cover is mounted in contact with the filtering elastic seat. The suspension spring comes to bear axially on the lower bearing cover. This lower cover is, for its part, fixed relative to the body of the vehicle. For more details, it is possible to refer, for example, to Patent Applications FR-A1-2 778 606 and FR-A1-2 857 906.
Such a suspension bump thrust device allows a rotary movement between the lower bearing cover and the filtering elastic seat arising from a turn of the steered wheels of the vehicle and/or from the compression of the suspension spring, while transmitting the axial forces between the spring and the body of the vehicle.
The overall axial space requirement of the suspension bump thrust is relatively large because the filtering elastic seat, the upper bearing cover mounted against the said seat, the rolling bearing, and the lower bearing cover supporting the rolling bearing and against which the suspension spring rests are stacked axially.
Moreover, the lower and upper bearing covers between which the rolling bearing on the one hand and the filtering elastic seat on the other hand are housed form two distinct assemblies that are stored, transported, handled and mounted separately.
The object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks.